The NC Sea Grant (NCSG) Community Collaborative Research Grant (CCRG) program seeks to address priority coastal issues in the state by strategically linking local ecological knowledge sources with academic experts in the field. For the FY 2023-24 solicitation, 17 applications were received proposing over $500,000 worth of work. This is the highest ever number of applications for the CCRG program.
KIETS Associate Director Raj Narayan serves on the CCRG review and selection committee. FY 2023-24 projects in progress include the following:
- Phil Bresnahan (UNCW), Hydrological Connectivity: Improving Coastal Literacy and
Resilience in Classrooms and Communities in the City of Wilmington;
- Emily Berglund (NCSU), Direct Potable Reuse for NC State’s Centennial Campus: Exploring Water Quality Needs and Regulatory Pathways;
- Kimberly Jones (Brunswick Community College) Bottlenose Dolphin Distribution, Abundance and Health along the Brunswick County Coast/Cape Fear River Region of North
Carolina;
- Chris Osburn (NCSU), Organic Nitrogen Sources in Tributaries to the Chowan River from the Town of Edenton after Rain Events;
- Kathryn Stevenson (NCSU), Investing in Teacher Expertise to Scale up a Resilience Curriculum.
The FY 2023-24 RFP also invited collaborations with the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership as well as the KIETS Climate Leaders Program to more systematically align with KIETS initiatives and priorities. Two of the awarded projects (Jones and Stevenson) include collaborations with the Kenan Fellows Program. KIETS increased its allocation to the CCRG to $50K for FY 23-24 which was matched by NC Sea Grant and WRRI with $74,406. The five new projects reported $114,700 in matching funds.
Also, NC State professor and prior CCRG awardee Astrid Schnetzer, informed via email the following quote: “Based in part on the seed data and findings obtained from prior CCRG projects, 2019 19-CCRG Food Web Transfer of Cyanobacterial Toxins in the Chowan River and Western Albemarle Sound, North Carolina and 2023-CCRG Spatiotemporal Patterns of Algal Toxin Contamination in Small and Juvenile Fish Across Albemarle Sound and Its Tributaries, that she and her team were able to pursue and successfully win a $6.9M grant from NSF and NIEHS to fund a new 5-year Center focused on Oceans and Human Health at NC State University.”
Thus, two prior CCRG projects totaling a $49,980 investment helped leverage $6.9 million for a new Center. In response to inquiries received from potential applicants, NC Sea Grant is interested in continuing to support the CCRG in FY 2024-25 and has invited KIETS collaboration.